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Scandals, Affairs and, Finally, Lasting Love: Patty Duke’s Colorful Romantic Life

Mar 31, 2016  •  Post A Comment

Oscar and Emmy winner Patty Duke, who died Tuesday at 69, is being remembered for her performances in movies including “The Miracle Worker” and in the wildly popular 1960s sitcom “The Patty Duke Show.” But a report in People magazine focuses on Duke’s personal life, noting that “those close to the actress say they’ll remember her most for one thing: her ability to love.”

Her son Sean Astin is quoted telling the AP: “The true story of her life isn’t her work and it isn’t her advocacy, it’s the love relationship she’s had with her husband Mike for the last 30 years.” Duke was married three times before she married Michael Pearce in 1986, including a 13-year marriage to actor John Astin.

The report says Duke was in “a manic state” when, in June 1970, she “impulsively wed Michael Tell, a ‘total stranger’ who had been subletting her apartment (they were together for 13 days and the marriage was annulled a year later).”

One of the issues People gets into is the question of who was Sean Astin’s father. Back when Sean was 14, Duke told him that Astin wasn’t really his father; instead it was Desi Arnaz, Jr., who she had been seeing at one time. Sean then developed a close relationship with Arnaz, People reports.

The big twist came when Sean was in his 20s and took a DNA test, the article explains. Turns out his real biological dad was Michael Tell.

We encourage readers to click on the link near the top of this story to read People’s full report.

patty duke show

2 Comments

  1. That’s nothing! Wait til you hear who her identical cousin was sleeping with!

  2. It would be interesting to learn why she decided, at age 35, that it was the right time for her to go topless.

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